Barbara Edmonds: Labour's Finance Spokesperson on the state of the Government's books

Labour believes it's more financially responsible than the current Government following the release of Treasury's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update. 

It's predicting economic growth of just 1.7% in 2026, well down on the May Budget's 2.9% forecast. 

Labour's Finance and Economy spokesperson Barbara Edmonds was asked by Andrew Dickens whether her party would have increased taxes to get back in black faster. 

She says they would have followed the same plan they had in 2023, before the election, but ultimately it comes down to choices. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got the treasuries half year scorecard yesterday. It's not pretty.
The government's books are worse than expected. The surplus timeline
has been pushed back a bit to twenty nine thirty.
That's back a year. The deficit blows out to nearly
fourteen billion dollars, one point eight billion worse than back
in May. So Nichola worse was quick to defend herself.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
We have the receipts, and unfortunately for Labor, having opposed
every saving that we've delivered, they cannot take a position
of responsible fiscal management.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
So Labor's economics spokesperson Barbara Vans is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hello Barbara, good morning, Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
What do you say to what Nicholas said?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh, of course she's attacking Labor, and she's also attacking
the taxpayer union, who also said the books have gotten worse.
The alternative is is she would have to defend her books,
and they have said, what can Wes already know? Christopher
Luxe and Nicholallis have made them color?

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Would you have made things better?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Absolutely? If you looked at what we had in the
pre election fiscal update, we would have been in surplus
in twenty six twenty seven. But the books don't lie.
I mean, ultimately, unemployment is forecast to get worse, growth
is weaker than expected, and food prices continue to go up,
you know, basics like bread is fifty three percent higher

(01:20):
over the last year.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And what would you as a government do to actually
change that? Would you cut spending? How would you cut spending?
Would you cut spending?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, ultimately we told them that the tax cuts were
unaffordable in the twenty three election. Also, it's all about choices.
They've decided to spend money on property speculators.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Hold on, hold you notice, bar But I said, would
you cut spending? And then you'd started talking about the
tax cuts, which is about tax We'll get onto that later.
Would you reduce the amount that that any government, if
you were running it, spends.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, so that's what the forecast did show the pre
food twenty twenty three. We'd also gone through a fiscal
consolidation as well.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Okay, so you've met it already. Of course, the tax cuts,
the moving of the thresholds, you obviously would not have
done that, So that means you would have had higher
taxes than national currently has. Would you have increased taxes?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
We would have kept on the same track that we
had had in twenty twenty three. That was our plan
back at the election. Ultimately, it all comes down to choices,
and they've chosen to give funding to things that don't
help every day kiwis like with the cost of living.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Okay, in the high food the cost of superannuation payments
is projected to increase from twenty four point eight billion
in twenty five to twenty six to thirty point nine
billion and twenty nine thirty. All the economists say this
is the biggest spending driver. Would you cut super No.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
We've said we'd keep it at sixty five and that's
something that every party would need to take to the
election as well. New Zealanders want to be able to
plan for their retirement. Of course, obviously superannuation is part
of that house, as part of that qu we saver,
as part of that.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Okay, Well, how about this one, Working for Families tax credits.
If you abolish those, you could save three billion in
twenty five twenty six, or nearly fifteen billion over the
fore cast period. So would you cut Working for Families
tax credits?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
No? Because we know right now it's really difficult for
a lot of families and they depend on their weekly
working for families. Will be working for families every week.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, So how exactly would you reduce the cost of living,
which is about the only measure you've seen you do
so far. How would you do that?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
So we'll set out much more of our cost of
living plan and next year as part of the election.
But we're also so far already announced, for example, that
we would look at providing three free GP visits for
people coming out.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
All right, thank you, Barbara. Barbara Edmonds is Labies for
that spokesperson. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
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